"Done!" the word, said cheerfully, reached Mikasa's ears from her side. Hiding a smile, she turned to see Armin raising his arms above his head, sighing happily.

"You finished everything?" she asked, turning back to her own paperwork.

"Yep" his back sounded loudly, making him groan "just in time for dinner"

"Today's going to be more quiet than ever" she commented, signing with her name at the end of a page.

"Why? The new recruits arrived last week" he asked, putting on his jacket while getting up from his chair.

"Today was the first class with Annie" she got up too, fixing her scarf on her neck. The evenings were getting slowly colder, a clear sign that the fall was getting closer.

"Oh, right. I just hope she went easy on the kids" he held the door of the office open for her, smiling down at her. Twenty years old and he was finally taller than her.

"Kids…only five years ago we were ones too" she waited for him to close the door before starting walking towards the dining hall.

"Yeah…now look at us" he passed his arm over her shoulders, smiling the whole time "Squad Leader Mikasa Jaeger" she blushed and pushed him away.

"Shut it" she walked ahead of him, pushing the scarf higher on her face.

"Guys, wait!" a voice called for them from behind.

"Oh, hey Historia. I didn't know you were coming today" Armin offered the petite blonde a smile, nodding to Ymir at her side.

"I got here earlier than expected. Oh, I'm so relieved to be in a place where people don't call me 'Highness' or 'Lady'. I missed being Historia"

"C'mon, people" Ymir interrupted before Armin could speak "I wanna see how bad Annie left the kids" taking Historia's hand, she led the way.

The dining hall was a big room, yet it was not hard for them to find Annie and Eren in one of the tables.

"Hey" Mikasa said, sitting on the chair next to Eren on the head of the table "How was your day?"

"Hey" he kissed her cheek, taking her hand. "Same as always, kind of boring. How was yours?"

"Completely boring" she said while seeing Armin kiss Annie's cheek, sitting beside her. "I don't know how much longer I can stand paperwork" she snorted, letting her head fall on Eren's shoulder when he put his arm on the back of the chair.

Before Eren could answer, Annie let out a laugh that sounded too much like a bark.

"They are going to need a lot of training. Since Shadis retired the recruits are not the same. We may as well be the last decent class"

"We were abnormals" Ymir laughed, leaning back on the chair.

"Nah, not everyone" Reiner's deep voice said, moving the table next to them to make a bigger one with the help of Berthold and Jean "Just Connie and Sasha" he sat, his laugh filling the room.

The new kids looked at the source of the sound while the older people didn't even turn.

"Hey! I'm pretty sure Ymir didn't mean it like that!" Sasha appeared behind Berthold, Connie at her side.

"Yeah man. I mean, we had an Ackerman, six Titan Shifters, a Reiss heir-"

"A horse face" added Eren, raising his glass.

"Humanity's Most Annoying!" shouted Jean from his seat beside Connie, at the other side of the table.

"I already named you, Jean" Eren raised an eyebrow to him, a smirk on his lips.

"And all of that is more abnormal than Connie and I" Sasha crossed her arms on the table, resting her chin on them.

"Nothing is more abnormal than doing the salute wrong"

"Shut up, Annie!" Connie jumped at his feet, his cheeks flushed pink.

"Calm down, everyone!" Armin raised his arms "Can we stop using abnormal?"

"Fine" some of them mumbled, looking down.

"I mean, what kind of example are we giving to the new people?" Armin looked at them with narrowed eyes.

"You are so childish" Historia looked at them before letting out a small smirk "Or should I say subnormal?"

"The Queen has spoken!" Ymir put her arm on her shoulders, bringing the smaller girl to her side while throwing her head back in laughter.

"I swear to Sina" Armin mumbled under his breath after seeing the looks on his comrades' faces.

It would be a while before the new recruits treated them with respect again.

Or maybe not, they discovered after the next class with Annie.